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Sunday, September 14, 2008

How to Prepare and Cook BBQ Brisket

As loyal readers of the forum probably already know, brisket has become one of my favorite barbecued meats.

1. I started off with a visit to my local butcher and picked up a 16 lb. untrimmed brisket. I used to cook the brisket flats from Sam's Club, but after switching to "whole" briskets a few years ago, my results improved tremendously and so did my bbq contest results. A large, untrimmed brisket will cost $30-$35 depending on the weight and depending on whether it's a Certified Angus Beef (CAB) brisket. If it's available, I prefer CAB.

2. Last night I trimmed off some of the excess fat cap on the brisket, pierced the brisket with my Jaccard and rubbed it liberally with my Southern BBQ Rub. If you don't have a Jaccard, you can use a fork and pierce holes in the meat, which will allow the bbq rub to better penetrate the meat.

3. I placed the brisket in a double thickness plastic garbage bag and refrigerated it overnight. This allows time for the seasoning to penetrate the meat and also makes getting it on the cooker faster when it comes time to start the cooking process.

4. This morning I pre-heated the Weber Smokey Mountain to 250 degrees, added water to the water pan, removed the brisket from the refrigerator, and placed it directly on in the WSM. The health department recommends that meat spend less than 4 hours in the danger zone (i.e. internal meat temperature higher than 40 degrees and lower than 140 degrees.)

(I do not subscribe to the theory that allowing the meat to rise to room temperature will somehow improve the cooking results. I think it allows the potential for meat spoilage, although I’ve seen World Champion Barbecue Teams do it at competitions.)

5. Maintain cooker temp as low as possible near 190 degrees for as long as possible. I've found that the slower I can cook the brisket, the more consistent my results are.

6. I foil the brisket after about 5 hours, or once the bark begins to form.

7. I spritz with apple juice a few times during the cooking process as well. This seems to help with bark formation.

10 comments:

I would have thought all of the punctures would have also let the meat dry out. I had people giving me a hard time for using a meat hook once and that was just one hole:) Obviously your results show otherwise. Would you do this on a butt or does it only work for brisket?

I've been using a Jaccard prior to rubbing my briskets for about 4 years. My best finish prior to the Jaccard was a 7th, since I started using the Jaccard I've won the brisket category on multiple occasions and my overall average is up subtantially.

Whether they will admit it or not, many of the people that are doing well in brisket at competitions are probably using a Jaccard, or something similar. I know of two Top Ten KCBS teams that use this tool regularly.

I've not tried the Jaccard on pork, but I've seen it used. A professional chef I know uses it on pork butts. He applies rub to the butts and then wraps them tightly in Saran Wrap. I used to use Saran Wrap, but stopped because it's real messy.

I was wondering as well about the theory that a rub will flavor the meat better if you allow the meat to warm up to room temperature before applying it. I have tried it both ways with pork butt and didn't notice a major difference. I unfortunately live in NYC and don't have space to set up a smoker so I have been trying to make do using a crockpot. Wondering if you had any thoughts about crockpot bbq. I know the major consensus is that if it isn't done in a smoker, it isn't bbq, which I am inclined to agree with, but would still like to make a go of it with a crockpot.

I do believe that meat from a local butcher is better. They can order CAB brisket for me and have within a couple days.

I also think they take the time to pick and choose the briskets they give me because they know I'm going to use them for bbq. They may have me fooled, but I prefer the local butcher to Sam's Club for brisket.

The theory behind allowing meat to reach room temparature is that you want to very slowly move the temp of the meat up to prevent toughness. You dont wnt the protiens and connective tissue tightening up. The penetration of the meat has advantages and disadvantages. Penetratiuon of flavor is the obvious. The holes can make a place for moisture to escape. If you sealed those holes or kept the meat nice and moist there shouldnt be a problem. Also, I see people were asking about the apple cider. It contains sugars and carmelizes onto the meat. So this carmelization helps make a even sweet bark. If you like acidic bbq or want to break protiens down more than you can use apple cider vinegar. I like both so I go 50/50 on the two. My compliments to the poor college students(like me) that can learn to cook this huge cheap peice of meat and make it last for a weeks worth of meals.

also, for those who dont have space or money for a smoker, there is a cheap solution. Take 2 foil roasting pans and place a box of wood chips in it. Light the chips on fire (after soaking) and place your meat in. Vent it a little. That is for a cold smoke. For a hot smoke just place that box in your grill and go to town. I find it nice because a smoker can be messy and you can just throw away your foil roasting pans (the ones you do turkeys in)

Hey great tips about brisket. It's my wife's favorite meat from the smoker, so I'm trying to prepare it more often. I saw that you foiled it at five hours. What was your total time the meat was in the smoker?PiggyRibs.com-BBQ Blog

About Me

Brian Pearcy competed in bbq contests sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and Florida Barbecue Association. He has published more than 940 articles about bbq cooking. Brian authors two bbq web sites: The BBQ Guy and BBQ Blog. His prize winning bbq spice rubs have earned numerous awards.

This post originally appeared last year, but I thought it was time to bring it back to the "top of the blog". I'm ho...

BBQ Tips

How to keep BBQ hot if you're not quite ready to eat it...

use an ice chest/ice cooler. Put some hot water in an empty ice chest, close the lid and let it set for 3 or 4 minutes. Drain the hot water and you've got yourself a portable BBQ warmer. We've kept pork butts warm this way for 6 or 7 hours.

How to keep your hands clean when cooking BBQ...

use powder free latex gloves. They come in packs of 100 at the local Sam's and will keep your hands clean. You'll maintain good sanitary practices too.

How to keep your spouse interested in the BBQ hobby...

get him/her involved in it with you. It's a lot of fun. You meet nice people and it's something you can do together.

How to keep your BBQ expenses in line with your budget...

Research all your purchases thoroughly. Make sure your purchase will do what you want it to do BEFORE you purchase it. For example, if you want to learn to cook whole hogs, you probably need to consider a big cooker or if you want to cook 10-15 racks spare ribs every weekend you're going to need something bigger than a WSM.

How to continually improve your BBQ recipes...

keep records of your cooking efforts including cook times, prepping techniques used and especially measurements for sauces or rubs and spices used. When you tweak the recipe for taste, only change one thing at a time--change the cook time, change the rub, change the sauce, but try to avoid completely changing everything all at once. Small changes to your technique and recipes will help you focus on the effects better and you'll be able to fine tune the product quality more efficiently.

How to BBQ Brisket

Brisket has become one of my favorite foods to barbecue. A pencil width slice of properly cooked brisket lightly coated with some Blues Hog BBQ Sauce is hard to beat.

I prefer to cook briskets in my Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM). I receive quite a few e-mails asking for help with barbecue brisket and thought I'd share some questions I received today.

Do you cook brisket with direct or indirect heat?

I use indirect heat and cook the brisket slowly at a temperature of 225-250 degrees.

Do you cook with fat cap up or fat cap down?

I begin cooking the brisket fat cap up for the first cooking segment. I don't flip until the brisket reaches 130 degrees or so. That's the point when the bark starts to harden a little bit. Then I flip it to fat side down. I used to skip this part but wanted a little more bark and found that this method will promote more bark formation.

Do you use foil?

I wrap in foil when the internal brisket temp is 165 degrees or if it's been cooking for at least 5 hours. Most of my briskets are completely done in 8 hours or so. I cook to an internal temp of 196-198 degrees and hold them in an Igloo cooler for a few hours to "rest" before slicing.

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